The Garden Traveler's Library: The Intimate Garden

The Intimate Garden. Twenty Years and Four Seasons in Our Garden.
By Gordon Hayward & Mary Hayward. W.W. Norton & Company


Even if you don’t live in a 200-year-old Vermont Farmhouse with a one-and-a-half acre garden, you’ll still find this book a treasure trove of inspiration and ideas that you can apply to your own garden.

Garden and landscape designer Gordon Hayward gives you a personal tour of the twenty-year “labor of love” he created with his wife, Mary, and along the way, explains what you see and feel and why and helps you understand how to apply what the Hayward’s have done to your own garden.

Almost 200 color photographs of the garden throughout the year, as well as before-and-after shots, makes Hayward’s’ garden design precepts enjoyable and easy to grasp. Garden maps, plant lists and maintenance are also included.

Again and again throughout the book, Hayward exhorts us to “look to gardens you’ve visited” for design ideas and solutions to problems. In the introduction, Hayward includes invaluable advice on what to look for when visiting other gardens. For the introduction alone, this book deserves a place on your bookshelf.